In the article “Latin American Dialects and Spanish Translations”, the author explores the basis dialects that exist throughout the Latin American regions. This person identifies 15 different languages: Latin American Spanish in general, Amazonian, Bolivian, Caribbean, Central American, Andean, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Northern Mexican, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Puerto Rican and Argentine Spanish. The purpose of this article is so that people who may be traveling to these different regions can familiarize themselves with certain aspects of the dialect. With acknowledgment of different pronunciations, spelling, grammar, and a nudge to the history of the different dialects, the article offers a great start to getting to know the diversity of the Spanish language. This article brings backs some memories of the different families that I had lived and worked with for most of my life. It sounds strange I know, but I have experienced some of these different dialects plus a few that this article does not mention. First off, my family is from Guatemala, so I understand both Guatemalan and Central American Spanish. Yet my family has moved from house to house for about 7 years. We have lived with a Chilean woman from Santiago, a family from Havana with a strong and FAST Cuban accent, my sister’s godparents who are Salvadorians, a man from Peru and another from Colombia, and families from both Northern and Southern Mexico (there are interesting and significant differences between the two). Also from high school, some of the people I knew are Latin Americans. I knew an Uruguayan, a Dominican, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, a few Costa Ricans, and those born here in the US who speak both Spanglish and Chicano Spanish. With this, I can pick out the different dialects I would come across. I’m not saying I’m an expert on all these dialects, but I converse to the point where I can somewhat sound like a person from these countries.
http://www.trustedtranslations.com/spanish-language/latin-american-dialects.asp
4 Comments
Paavali Hannikainen
4/5/2015 02:28:24 pm
I find your article fascinating because I think that dialects bring so much identity to people and have great importance. I would wonder how you personally react to realizing that the person you're speaking Spanish with has a different dialect. Does it change how you speak Spanish to try to match the person's dialect? I would think that I try to match my English to sound more like the person who I'm speaking to, but I'm not sure whether this would apply across different languages, especially Spanish which has so many different dialects like you mentioned.
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Selwyn Hernandez
4/6/2015 03:51:43 pm
My Spanish does change in terms of the speed I'm talking, the tone, and word choice that is specific to the dialect I'm speaking. It gets to the point where my dad will get very confused with what I was saying and how fast I talk. And yeah, it can done with other languages other than Spanish. I have a friend who speaks French and constantly reminds me that Euro French, Canadian French and Cajun French are very different. English is also very diverse, with New Englander, Southern, Country, Western, Midwestern, Northern, and Atlantic. And Jesse makes a great point below about the varieties of Chinese dialects that are sometimes seen as languages themselves.
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Brandon Amirian
4/6/2015 07:00:22 am
I think its so amazing that you are so exposed to your heritage language and know so many people from different backgrounds to the point where you can hear differences in the way they talk. I've always found the issue of different dialects amusing and I think Spanish is the language with the greatest amount of variation. My parents always told me that could tell which town in Iran someone was from by the way they spoke, but I am not proficient enough in Farsi to be able to detect that difference
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Jesse Wang
4/6/2015 02:21:12 pm
This article relates a lot to my discussion for Project 2, dialectal attitudes in China. In my project, I discussed the influences that Chinese dialects have on one another. I observe that these influences are very similar to the languages/ dialects that you discuss/ were exposed to because Chinese dialects are very much like their own languages. It's interesting to note that you can switch between the different dialectal modes of communication. I note that this type of ability is most likely the result of constant exposure of languages and dialects that have, over time, gained similar structure and perhaps pronunciations. I think that constant exposure and a desire to understand dialects that are inherently related to/ sound similar to one's own native language, is how we are able to gain the ability to switch between dialects and languages. Perhaps gaining the ability to speak multiple dialects within the same language, or multiple languages that are from the same linguistic family can provide a greater understanding of one's cultural identity, and even unity among people of different subcultural origins
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